Ships seen as just a start

By BILL POWER BUSINESS REPORTERPublished February 20, 2012 - 6:41pm Last Updated February 20, 2012 - 6:41pm

Advocate: Halifax must also build community

Halifax needs to start talking more about community building as well as shipbuilding, a noted New York City economic development consultant said Monday.

Majora Carter, a community advocate with a list of achievements in the South Bronx in New York City, said the $25-billion contract to build Canadian navy ships at the Irving-owned Halifax Shipyard presents a huge opportunity for the city at large to start thinking about building an engaged and collaborative community.

“The city might want to start looking within itself at some disengaged members of society who might benefit from this massive transition,” Carter said of the anticipated positive economic impact of the shipbuilding work.

She shared a few thoughts about effective community development in advance of her talk at the 11th Annual Carmichael Lecture in Halifax on March 8.

Carter said Halifax cannot allow the shipbuilding project for the Canadian navy to just happen, but instead must begin building a collaborative community that can change while thriving socially.

“The shipbuilding contract offers your city a rare opportunity to fill the expected shortage of skilled workers by getting training programs in place now and to re-engage some of those people who’ve found themselves on social security or suffering from substance-abuse issues,” said Carter.

There should be a structure in place to consult with the social and non-profit organizations in the Halifax area to build a collaborative city, she said.

“There could be opportunities here to work with the generationally impoverished, with veterans, the elderly and frequenters of the criminal justice system.”

Carter is a legend in community development circles across North America, mostly as a result of the successful urban rejuvenation movement she spearheaded in the South Bronx that started with her efforts to create a park along a neglected stretch of the Bronx River.

She hosts the Peabody Award-winning public radio series The Promised Land.

New York City is one of the world’s biggest urban centres, but some of the lessons learned there have applications in smaller communities such as Halifax, she said.

The lecture was created to honour Kate Carmichael, the former executive director of the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, and her passion for urban renewal.

“Great cities need public engagement,” Paul MacKinnon, now the commission’s executive director, said in a news release.

The lecture opens Dalhousie University’s school of planning conference from March 8 to 12. It is titled SHIFT 2012.

It is an annual student-run conference that brings together planning and design practitioners, academics, students and community members to examine and discuss innovations in planning and design.

Carmichael was diagnosed with leukemia in 1999 and remained active in community affairs in Halifax until she died on Oct. 17, 2001.